"And Then You" 4/6
Title: “And Then You”
Author: Lena
For: skadi/europa_kore
Fandom: Marvel
Warnings: Sexual Relations, Some Foul Language
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer: Marvel is god, I'm just a lowly worshiper, blah, blah, blah.
Summary: Darcy is driving in New Mexico when she nearly hits Loki, who has just fallen off the bifrost. Despite every self preserving instinct in her, she takes him to her home to patch him up.
Beta'd By: Just Me
Chapter Four:
Darcy had to admit that, when Loki was settled enough, he was actually engaging to talk to sometimes. One night while she was cooking, she got him to tell her a story about the origins of the universe, and it was actually really awesome to hear. He was a god, or an alien, or something more powerful than she was, so she assumed that his story might actually be right, but who the hell knew? However, when she asked too much about his past, or guessed something too correctly, he would turn dark and either stop talking or, like one time, shout and scream and throw things. The man was a picture of bipolar disorder. She only had to take one semester of Psych 101 to realize that.
She snagged a book on Norse mythology from the local library, deciding to read it while she worked at the restaurant. She did have bits of downtime while Jane ran tests and didn’t have anything for her to write up or file or something.
“What are you reading?” Jane asked, startling Darcy out of her reading. Darcy flipped the book slightly so that Jane could see the cover. “Reading up on Thor and his family. There are some crazy stories in here about them all, Loki especially.”
“Well, we don’t know what of that is truth and what of that is false,” Erik said, walking inside with their lunch. For some reason, he had wanted to go out and fetch it from the diner today. Saying something about needing the exercise. “Thor told me that some of the stories were mistakes and outright lies.”
“What about the one where he had to cross dress and marry some dude to get his hammer back?” Darcy asked.
“I actually asked him about that,” Erik admitted, laughing. “He said that it was unfortunately true.”
“God, with that beard? How did he manage to pass for anything resembling a woman?” Darcy asked with a laugh. “He’s a hot guy, but he had to make one UGLY woman.” Loki at least had a slighter build, but even he gave off an air of manliness that wouldn’t help him with the cross dressing, either.
“Speaking of men,” Jane drawled out with a grin, “Erik told me that you have one in your apartment from college.”
Darcy turned and glared at Erik. “You told!” she shouted, wanting to throw her book at him.
He seemed to guess, ducking behind one of the tables. “You didn’t tell me not to! Why are you hiding him away, anyway? Do you not want us to meet him? Embarrassed at working with us?”
He was teasing, but Darcy was still mortified. “No!” she protested, marking her place in the book and setting it aside. “You’ll likely smother him or something,” she explained quickly. She could hardly admit that she was kind of taking care of the guy who had leveled their town. It seemed insane, especially to her, that she was doing it, but she had kind of a caring nature. She didn’t have the heart to push him out of her home.
If anything, that would likely make him act worse.
“We wouldn’t do anything like that!” Jane protested. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to meet him, though.” Darcy grimaced, knowing what was likely to come next. “Why don’t you bring him to the bar tonight? It’s the weekend, so we don’t have to work tomorrow or anything.”
Darcy knew that, if she protested too badly, they would want to know why, but there was NO way that this would end anything but badly. She sighed. “Let me ask him, OK? He may not be up to it.”
“Not up to getting into another bar fight then?” Erik asked with a laugh, finally coming out fully from behind the table. “You have interesting friends from your college, Darcy.”
“Oh yeah, we’re regular party animals,” Darcy said, wondering whether or not she could pull this off without it all blowing up in her face.
OoOoOoOo
When Darcy made her way to her apartment after another twelve hour day (Jane would one day have to be explained to that, while she could run on old coffee and Poptarts until the end of time, some people were human and could not), the last thing she wanted to do was ask Loki if he could behave himself long enough to do one night with Jane and Erik without going insane or blowing the cover that she had so nicely set up for him.
As she walked inside, she realized that the place was clean, cleaner than she usually kept it. “Did you clean?” she asked in disbelief, looking over at Loki, who was sitting on the sofa.
“”One of us should, and I can do it with magic,” he said to her, not looking away from the TV. She couldn’t help but realize that Baker truly had seemed to have adopted Loki, as, whenever she came home now, Baker was always curled up in his lap. It was one of the things that told her that, deep down, he couldn’t be a complete evil nut job. Dogs hate those. That was just a fact.
“Right...well, thanks for that,” Darcy said, mostly still in shock that a prince of a different world would even think to do the dishes, much less set about doing them. Sure, he didn’t have to touch them or anything, but it was still weird. “Anyway, I kind of need a favor.”
That did cause him to turn toward her, eyebrow raised at her. “I thought that it would only be a matter of time before you needed my services for anything,” he said, sitting up stiffly. “I suppose I do owe you. What is it that you need, Darcy?”
“It’s not like that!” she protested. “You’re acting like I’m asking you to kill someone for me, which I’m totally not, by the way.” She leaned back against the door, trying to think of a way to phrase what she needed that sounded the least bit ridiculous. “You remember Erik, from the first night you were here?” When he nodded, she continued. “Well, he told Jane that my ‘friend from college’ was here, and now they’re both dying to get acquainted with you. It’s annoying and I wish that they wouldn’t, but they’ll totally annoy me until they get to meet you, so either we do it on something of our own terms or they drop by when we least expect it.” She hadn’t meant to word vomit all over him, but this whole idea had her feeling a bit nervous.
He stood up, slowly making his way over to her. “Why should I do this? It will only be an inconvenience, especially since everything we tell them will only be a lie.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t have a point there, but more that she was already annoyed and not really in the mood for another insisting person. “Did you miss the part where I said they’ll just drop by and bug the shit out of both of us?” she asked him, pressing herself a little more against her door when Loki stepped closer to her. “Besides, not like you have anywhere to go, so why not do me this little favor?”
Something about that little exchange apparently pissed Loki off, because he pushed himself against her, pinning her to the door. He more startled her than hurt her, causing her to gasp as she hit the door, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to move until he wanted her to. “I could simply kill the three of you and not have to deal with this at all,” he hissed, bending down so that he could say it in her ear. “Tell me why I shouldn’t do that.”
Even though her body was shaking and her mouth felt too dry to form words, she could hear herself saying, “You wouldn’t hurt someone that’s done nothing but help you, Loki.” Her voice was actually a lot steadier than she would have expected. She turned her eyes up so that she could look at him, and god he was far too close to her right now. She could easily get lost in the sea of green that was his eyes. “You know you don’t want to hurt me. Now come on and help me with this, please?”
He seemed to be stunned into a silence for a moment, but he at least backed off of her enough so that she could catch her breath and not be completely caught up in the completely dizzying spell that was Loki stepping way too close into her personal space for her sanity. “Honesty time, oh God of Lies,” she said, hoping that what she asked him next wouldn’t just anger him again. “Anyone ever just try to help you before?” He seemed to have been expecting far too much for her to ask some big favor of him. Maybe her asking anything at all had set him on edge.
“No one does anything for me without wanting something in return,” Loki said to her, his eyes still on her. “They always want some bit of information, or want me to do something, or encourage someone else to do something.”
Even though now she technically could move, his eyes on her like that still have her frozen in place. “Yeah well, I just want you to go out for drinks with me,” she said. “Play nice for my coworkers. Nothing nearly that hazardous.” She sighed. “Where you’re from must suck if everyone only do things for you when they want something.”
“It does,” he admitted, and she realized that he must have learned that word from TV. He did watch an awful lot of it. Finally, he pushed away from her completely, turning away and she finally felt like she could relax a little bit. Loki was a very intense person, and it was freaky to have that intensity turned on her in any way.
“So, you normally get that snippy when someone stands up to you a bit, or am I special?” she asked, nearly covering her mouth with a gasp when she said that aloud. That was really supposed to stay in her head.
Thankfully, it seemed that the crisis was truly averted, because he just chuckled. “It must be you and your special way with words,” he remarked, not turning around to her.
“Nah, I bet you’re that way with everyone,” she said, smiling with just a touch of nervousness. “You seem like a control freak like that.”
“I don’t know why I put up with you,” he muttered as he grabbed some clothes, obviously going off to change for their night at the bar. “You’re an infuriating creature.”
“Obviously you must totally adore me, because otherwise I don’t get it, either,” she said with a smirk, and was rewarded with a quizzical look and a huff before he stomped off to the bathroom. Score one for Darcy, obviously.
OoOoOoOo
Darcy and Loki managed to put together a decent cover story before making their way to the bar. She had ended up calling Erik and Jane and letting them know that they were on. She was still sort of amazed that Loki had seemingly agreed to come along for this, considering the snit fit he had initially thrown. She wanted to keep it pretty basic, although she had the feeling that Loki could handle remembering anything that she could make up.
She didn’t remember buying the particular clothes that Loki was wearing tonight (she had admittedly raided a local Goodwill to get what she needed for him), but she had to admit that he looked really good. She thought that the black leather pants might be part of what he had been wearing when he fell to Earth, but she knew that she hadn’t bought the black v-neck long sleeved shirt that he had worn. Actually, it looked expensive as hell.
When they arrived at the one bar in the town, Erik and Jane were already there. They hadn’t bothered to change clothes, and neither had Darcy. She didn’t know why Loki had bothered, other than to show off. He seemed like the type that wanted to show off, after all, plus, the whole ‘god’ thing.
“Hi guys!” Darcy said with a wave as she walked up to the table. “This, obviously, is Jeremy,” she said with a smile. He reached out and shook both Jane and Erik’s hands, now simply able to pour on the charm. “Jeremy, this is Jane and Erik, who I work with.”
Jane and Erik had left one side of the booth open for the both of them, and she slid into it on the inside. Thankfully, Loki didn’t seem to think twice about sliding in next to her, or it might have looked weird. They were supposed to be friends after all. They were at least friendly, you know, most of the time when Loki wasn’t throwing a bipolar fit, but they hadn’t known each other long enough for anything else, right?
“So, Jeremy, how long have the two of you known each other?” Erik asked. She knew that Erik was a little suspicious of what was going on, since he had gotten to stumble in on them when Loki was still mostly a giant bruise, which was weird even on the best of days.
Darcy was going to answer, but Loki beat her to it. “We actually shared a freshman English class together,” he explained. “She talked my damn head off, and we kind of became inseparable ever since.”
Darcy giggled, but she couldn’t help but inwardly wonder where he had learned enough about college to be able to speak with any sort of certainty. TV could only teach him so much. Maybe he played around on her laptop, too? It made her grin to picture a Norse god playing around on the internet. She should introduce him to twitter! Oh wait, that could only end in disaster.
The waitress came around and got drink orders for them, with Erik ordering them all something called ‘boilermakers.’ Darcy admittedly had no idea what the hell that was, but she usually stuck to either beer or simply cocktails of some kind that tasted like kool aid. Still, what was brought around looked mostly like a beer, so she rolled with it.
OoOoOoOo
Loki hadn’t wanted to participate in this night of drinking, as, while he felt almost comfortable around Darcy, the other mortals of this realm had yet to impress him. However, Darcy had a point in one of the things she mentioned to him: he liked her. When she wasn’t paying attention, she could actually be a witty and charming individual, although she was horrendously naive. He could only assume that the ones called Jane and Erik protected this girl somewhat. The fact that she had picked him up off the road and then seemed to want to keep him around showed that she knew little about the world.
He had promised his brother that, when he was done, he would pay Jane a visit, but he hadn’t planned on it being in a bar with her assistant and...whatever Erik Selvig was to them. He wasn’t terribly sure. This had not been what he had in mind when he said that.
He wasn’t terribly sure what these ‘boilermakers’ were made of, either, but they packed a hard punch for something that a Midgardian had come up with. He still wasn’t terribly affected by them. Jane had nursed one while Erik had two while they talked, but it seemed that Darcy had gotten a little carried away. She was on her third one when she started to slump against him in the booth. When Loki tried to cut her off, she had simply stolen his drink. Darcy was crafty when she wasn’t trying, or he was just a little off guard because he’d had three of the damn drinks himself.
When Darcy started loudly to sing some song, Loki realized that it was time to go. “Well, it’s been fun getting to know you both,” Loki said to them, sliding out of the booth. “But I think Darcy has had a little too much to drink tonight, and I should be a decent gentleman and take her home.”
He tried to get Darcy to help herself out of the booth, but, as soon as he had her standing, her legs went right out from under her, and he had to pick her up and cradle her in his arms. “She’s certainly had too much to drink,” Loki stated, trying not to laugh at the young woman who immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his neck.
“Make sure that you get her home safe,” Erik told him, looking at him sternly. Then the man smiled at him. “Thank the gods that she doesn’t have to be at work tomorrow, right?”
Loki nodded, bidding Erik and Jane both farewell before carrying Darcy out of the bar. They had walked to the bar, as Darcy’s apartment wasn’t too far away. It didn’t take him long to get to her home, fishing her keys out of her purse and unlocking the door. He set her down on the sofa so that he could lock the door, but, as soon as he was turning around from that, it appeared that Darcy had regained her ability to walk, as she had somehow made her way over to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
“Have I told you that I love that shirt on you?” she asked, turning her eyes up to look at him. His mouth went dry when her tongue peeked out, wetting her bottom lip. “Because you look positively delicious in it. I could eat you up with a spoon,” she drawled.
“You need to go to bed and sleep this off,” Loki told her, his breath coming out in short gasps. He couldn’t even remember the last time that he’d been with a woman. That had to be why this was affecting him so much. That had to be it.
“Go to bed? Is that an invitation?” she asked, leaning up on her toes and running the tip of that infernal tongue along the side of his neck.
“No, it was not,” he protested, pushing her away. “And if you won’t go yourself, then I will simply have to make you go to bed.” Moreover, be far away from him. He couldn’t think straight with her pressed against him like that.
When she started to argue again, he picked her up, lifting her up and over his shoulder. He kicked open the door to her bedroom, fully intent upon dumping her on the bed and then running back to the living room. There was a misstep in his plan, though. When he tried to deposit her on the bed, she grabbed a hold of his shirt, pulling him down with her. Before he had the chance to pull away, she tugged him closer, pressing her full, warm lips against his.
He froze for a split second, not kissing her back but not pulling away yet, and that seemed to be all the time that she needed, rolling them both over until she was on top of him, straddling his hips. With a warm, rather attractive woman moving against him, he got a little weak. They were still kissing, and now he was kissing her back, holding her flush against him.
It took him a few moments to come back to himself, snapping back to attention and breaking their lips apart. Her lipstick had smeared, and he realized that he likely had it all over his lips now as well, and she had a questioning look on her face. “Why’d you stop?” she asked, breathing hard.
“You’re drunk, Darcy,” he said to her, somehow managing to push her away and disentangle himself from her, moving to the side of the bed. “You’re very drunk, and not in charge of your faculties, and this wouldn’t be right.” She tried to pull him back and he gently yet firmly removed her hands from him again. “You wouldn’t forgive me for taking advantage of the situation.”
Whether he stunned her or simply seemed to agree, she stopped trying to pull him back, and he got up off the bed and all but ran from the room.
Author: Lena
For: skadi/europa_kore
Fandom: Marvel
Warnings: Sexual Relations, Some Foul Language
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer: Marvel is god, I'm just a lowly worshiper, blah, blah, blah.
Summary: Darcy is driving in New Mexico when she nearly hits Loki, who has just fallen off the bifrost. Despite every self preserving instinct in her, she takes him to her home to patch him up.
Beta'd By: Just Me
Chapter Four:
Darcy had to admit that, when Loki was settled enough, he was actually engaging to talk to sometimes. One night while she was cooking, she got him to tell her a story about the origins of the universe, and it was actually really awesome to hear. He was a god, or an alien, or something more powerful than she was, so she assumed that his story might actually be right, but who the hell knew? However, when she asked too much about his past, or guessed something too correctly, he would turn dark and either stop talking or, like one time, shout and scream and throw things. The man was a picture of bipolar disorder. She only had to take one semester of Psych 101 to realize that.
She snagged a book on Norse mythology from the local library, deciding to read it while she worked at the restaurant. She did have bits of downtime while Jane ran tests and didn’t have anything for her to write up or file or something.
“What are you reading?” Jane asked, startling Darcy out of her reading. Darcy flipped the book slightly so that Jane could see the cover. “Reading up on Thor and his family. There are some crazy stories in here about them all, Loki especially.”
“Well, we don’t know what of that is truth and what of that is false,” Erik said, walking inside with their lunch. For some reason, he had wanted to go out and fetch it from the diner today. Saying something about needing the exercise. “Thor told me that some of the stories were mistakes and outright lies.”
“What about the one where he had to cross dress and marry some dude to get his hammer back?” Darcy asked.
“I actually asked him about that,” Erik admitted, laughing. “He said that it was unfortunately true.”
“God, with that beard? How did he manage to pass for anything resembling a woman?” Darcy asked with a laugh. “He’s a hot guy, but he had to make one UGLY woman.” Loki at least had a slighter build, but even he gave off an air of manliness that wouldn’t help him with the cross dressing, either.
“Speaking of men,” Jane drawled out with a grin, “Erik told me that you have one in your apartment from college.”
Darcy turned and glared at Erik. “You told!” she shouted, wanting to throw her book at him.
He seemed to guess, ducking behind one of the tables. “You didn’t tell me not to! Why are you hiding him away, anyway? Do you not want us to meet him? Embarrassed at working with us?”
He was teasing, but Darcy was still mortified. “No!” she protested, marking her place in the book and setting it aside. “You’ll likely smother him or something,” she explained quickly. She could hardly admit that she was kind of taking care of the guy who had leveled their town. It seemed insane, especially to her, that she was doing it, but she had kind of a caring nature. She didn’t have the heart to push him out of her home.
If anything, that would likely make him act worse.
“We wouldn’t do anything like that!” Jane protested. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to meet him, though.” Darcy grimaced, knowing what was likely to come next. “Why don’t you bring him to the bar tonight? It’s the weekend, so we don’t have to work tomorrow or anything.”
Darcy knew that, if she protested too badly, they would want to know why, but there was NO way that this would end anything but badly. She sighed. “Let me ask him, OK? He may not be up to it.”
“Not up to getting into another bar fight then?” Erik asked with a laugh, finally coming out fully from behind the table. “You have interesting friends from your college, Darcy.”
“Oh yeah, we’re regular party animals,” Darcy said, wondering whether or not she could pull this off without it all blowing up in her face.
OoOoOoOo
When Darcy made her way to her apartment after another twelve hour day (Jane would one day have to be explained to that, while she could run on old coffee and Poptarts until the end of time, some people were human and could not), the last thing she wanted to do was ask Loki if he could behave himself long enough to do one night with Jane and Erik without going insane or blowing the cover that she had so nicely set up for him.
As she walked inside, she realized that the place was clean, cleaner than she usually kept it. “Did you clean?” she asked in disbelief, looking over at Loki, who was sitting on the sofa.
“”One of us should, and I can do it with magic,” he said to her, not looking away from the TV. She couldn’t help but realize that Baker truly had seemed to have adopted Loki, as, whenever she came home now, Baker was always curled up in his lap. It was one of the things that told her that, deep down, he couldn’t be a complete evil nut job. Dogs hate those. That was just a fact.
“Right...well, thanks for that,” Darcy said, mostly still in shock that a prince of a different world would even think to do the dishes, much less set about doing them. Sure, he didn’t have to touch them or anything, but it was still weird. “Anyway, I kind of need a favor.”
That did cause him to turn toward her, eyebrow raised at her. “I thought that it would only be a matter of time before you needed my services for anything,” he said, sitting up stiffly. “I suppose I do owe you. What is it that you need, Darcy?”
“It’s not like that!” she protested. “You’re acting like I’m asking you to kill someone for me, which I’m totally not, by the way.” She leaned back against the door, trying to think of a way to phrase what she needed that sounded the least bit ridiculous. “You remember Erik, from the first night you were here?” When he nodded, she continued. “Well, he told Jane that my ‘friend from college’ was here, and now they’re both dying to get acquainted with you. It’s annoying and I wish that they wouldn’t, but they’ll totally annoy me until they get to meet you, so either we do it on something of our own terms or they drop by when we least expect it.” She hadn’t meant to word vomit all over him, but this whole idea had her feeling a bit nervous.
He stood up, slowly making his way over to her. “Why should I do this? It will only be an inconvenience, especially since everything we tell them will only be a lie.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t have a point there, but more that she was already annoyed and not really in the mood for another insisting person. “Did you miss the part where I said they’ll just drop by and bug the shit out of both of us?” she asked him, pressing herself a little more against her door when Loki stepped closer to her. “Besides, not like you have anywhere to go, so why not do me this little favor?”
Something about that little exchange apparently pissed Loki off, because he pushed himself against her, pinning her to the door. He more startled her than hurt her, causing her to gasp as she hit the door, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to move until he wanted her to. “I could simply kill the three of you and not have to deal with this at all,” he hissed, bending down so that he could say it in her ear. “Tell me why I shouldn’t do that.”
Even though her body was shaking and her mouth felt too dry to form words, she could hear herself saying, “You wouldn’t hurt someone that’s done nothing but help you, Loki.” Her voice was actually a lot steadier than she would have expected. She turned her eyes up so that she could look at him, and god he was far too close to her right now. She could easily get lost in the sea of green that was his eyes. “You know you don’t want to hurt me. Now come on and help me with this, please?”
He seemed to be stunned into a silence for a moment, but he at least backed off of her enough so that she could catch her breath and not be completely caught up in the completely dizzying spell that was Loki stepping way too close into her personal space for her sanity. “Honesty time, oh God of Lies,” she said, hoping that what she asked him next wouldn’t just anger him again. “Anyone ever just try to help you before?” He seemed to have been expecting far too much for her to ask some big favor of him. Maybe her asking anything at all had set him on edge.
“No one does anything for me without wanting something in return,” Loki said to her, his eyes still on her. “They always want some bit of information, or want me to do something, or encourage someone else to do something.”
Even though now she technically could move, his eyes on her like that still have her frozen in place. “Yeah well, I just want you to go out for drinks with me,” she said. “Play nice for my coworkers. Nothing nearly that hazardous.” She sighed. “Where you’re from must suck if everyone only do things for you when they want something.”
“It does,” he admitted, and she realized that he must have learned that word from TV. He did watch an awful lot of it. Finally, he pushed away from her completely, turning away and she finally felt like she could relax a little bit. Loki was a very intense person, and it was freaky to have that intensity turned on her in any way.
“So, you normally get that snippy when someone stands up to you a bit, or am I special?” she asked, nearly covering her mouth with a gasp when she said that aloud. That was really supposed to stay in her head.
Thankfully, it seemed that the crisis was truly averted, because he just chuckled. “It must be you and your special way with words,” he remarked, not turning around to her.
“Nah, I bet you’re that way with everyone,” she said, smiling with just a touch of nervousness. “You seem like a control freak like that.”
“I don’t know why I put up with you,” he muttered as he grabbed some clothes, obviously going off to change for their night at the bar. “You’re an infuriating creature.”
“Obviously you must totally adore me, because otherwise I don’t get it, either,” she said with a smirk, and was rewarded with a quizzical look and a huff before he stomped off to the bathroom. Score one for Darcy, obviously.
OoOoOoOo
Darcy and Loki managed to put together a decent cover story before making their way to the bar. She had ended up calling Erik and Jane and letting them know that they were on. She was still sort of amazed that Loki had seemingly agreed to come along for this, considering the snit fit he had initially thrown. She wanted to keep it pretty basic, although she had the feeling that Loki could handle remembering anything that she could make up.
She didn’t remember buying the particular clothes that Loki was wearing tonight (she had admittedly raided a local Goodwill to get what she needed for him), but she had to admit that he looked really good. She thought that the black leather pants might be part of what he had been wearing when he fell to Earth, but she knew that she hadn’t bought the black v-neck long sleeved shirt that he had worn. Actually, it looked expensive as hell.
When they arrived at the one bar in the town, Erik and Jane were already there. They hadn’t bothered to change clothes, and neither had Darcy. She didn’t know why Loki had bothered, other than to show off. He seemed like the type that wanted to show off, after all, plus, the whole ‘god’ thing.
“Hi guys!” Darcy said with a wave as she walked up to the table. “This, obviously, is Jeremy,” she said with a smile. He reached out and shook both Jane and Erik’s hands, now simply able to pour on the charm. “Jeremy, this is Jane and Erik, who I work with.”
Jane and Erik had left one side of the booth open for the both of them, and she slid into it on the inside. Thankfully, Loki didn’t seem to think twice about sliding in next to her, or it might have looked weird. They were supposed to be friends after all. They were at least friendly, you know, most of the time when Loki wasn’t throwing a bipolar fit, but they hadn’t known each other long enough for anything else, right?
“So, Jeremy, how long have the two of you known each other?” Erik asked. She knew that Erik was a little suspicious of what was going on, since he had gotten to stumble in on them when Loki was still mostly a giant bruise, which was weird even on the best of days.
Darcy was going to answer, but Loki beat her to it. “We actually shared a freshman English class together,” he explained. “She talked my damn head off, and we kind of became inseparable ever since.”
Darcy giggled, but she couldn’t help but inwardly wonder where he had learned enough about college to be able to speak with any sort of certainty. TV could only teach him so much. Maybe he played around on her laptop, too? It made her grin to picture a Norse god playing around on the internet. She should introduce him to twitter! Oh wait, that could only end in disaster.
The waitress came around and got drink orders for them, with Erik ordering them all something called ‘boilermakers.’ Darcy admittedly had no idea what the hell that was, but she usually stuck to either beer or simply cocktails of some kind that tasted like kool aid. Still, what was brought around looked mostly like a beer, so she rolled with it.
OoOoOoOo
Loki hadn’t wanted to participate in this night of drinking, as, while he felt almost comfortable around Darcy, the other mortals of this realm had yet to impress him. However, Darcy had a point in one of the things she mentioned to him: he liked her. When she wasn’t paying attention, she could actually be a witty and charming individual, although she was horrendously naive. He could only assume that the ones called Jane and Erik protected this girl somewhat. The fact that she had picked him up off the road and then seemed to want to keep him around showed that she knew little about the world.
He had promised his brother that, when he was done, he would pay Jane a visit, but he hadn’t planned on it being in a bar with her assistant and...whatever Erik Selvig was to them. He wasn’t terribly sure. This had not been what he had in mind when he said that.
He wasn’t terribly sure what these ‘boilermakers’ were made of, either, but they packed a hard punch for something that a Midgardian had come up with. He still wasn’t terribly affected by them. Jane had nursed one while Erik had two while they talked, but it seemed that Darcy had gotten a little carried away. She was on her third one when she started to slump against him in the booth. When Loki tried to cut her off, she had simply stolen his drink. Darcy was crafty when she wasn’t trying, or he was just a little off guard because he’d had three of the damn drinks himself.
When Darcy started loudly to sing some song, Loki realized that it was time to go. “Well, it’s been fun getting to know you both,” Loki said to them, sliding out of the booth. “But I think Darcy has had a little too much to drink tonight, and I should be a decent gentleman and take her home.”
He tried to get Darcy to help herself out of the booth, but, as soon as he had her standing, her legs went right out from under her, and he had to pick her up and cradle her in his arms. “She’s certainly had too much to drink,” Loki stated, trying not to laugh at the young woman who immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his neck.
“Make sure that you get her home safe,” Erik told him, looking at him sternly. Then the man smiled at him. “Thank the gods that she doesn’t have to be at work tomorrow, right?”
Loki nodded, bidding Erik and Jane both farewell before carrying Darcy out of the bar. They had walked to the bar, as Darcy’s apartment wasn’t too far away. It didn’t take him long to get to her home, fishing her keys out of her purse and unlocking the door. He set her down on the sofa so that he could lock the door, but, as soon as he was turning around from that, it appeared that Darcy had regained her ability to walk, as she had somehow made her way over to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
“Have I told you that I love that shirt on you?” she asked, turning her eyes up to look at him. His mouth went dry when her tongue peeked out, wetting her bottom lip. “Because you look positively delicious in it. I could eat you up with a spoon,” she drawled.
“You need to go to bed and sleep this off,” Loki told her, his breath coming out in short gasps. He couldn’t even remember the last time that he’d been with a woman. That had to be why this was affecting him so much. That had to be it.
“Go to bed? Is that an invitation?” she asked, leaning up on her toes and running the tip of that infernal tongue along the side of his neck.
“No, it was not,” he protested, pushing her away. “And if you won’t go yourself, then I will simply have to make you go to bed.” Moreover, be far away from him. He couldn’t think straight with her pressed against him like that.
When she started to argue again, he picked her up, lifting her up and over his shoulder. He kicked open the door to her bedroom, fully intent upon dumping her on the bed and then running back to the living room. There was a misstep in his plan, though. When he tried to deposit her on the bed, she grabbed a hold of his shirt, pulling him down with her. Before he had the chance to pull away, she tugged him closer, pressing her full, warm lips against his.
He froze for a split second, not kissing her back but not pulling away yet, and that seemed to be all the time that she needed, rolling them both over until she was on top of him, straddling his hips. With a warm, rather attractive woman moving against him, he got a little weak. They were still kissing, and now he was kissing her back, holding her flush against him.
It took him a few moments to come back to himself, snapping back to attention and breaking their lips apart. Her lipstick had smeared, and he realized that he likely had it all over his lips now as well, and she had a questioning look on her face. “Why’d you stop?” she asked, breathing hard.
“You’re drunk, Darcy,” he said to her, somehow managing to push her away and disentangle himself from her, moving to the side of the bed. “You’re very drunk, and not in charge of your faculties, and this wouldn’t be right.” She tried to pull him back and he gently yet firmly removed her hands from him again. “You wouldn’t forgive me for taking advantage of the situation.”
Whether he stunned her or simply seemed to agree, she stopped trying to pull him back, and he got up off the bed and all but ran from the room.